I've been writing a while about how new technologies affect our driving. It seems like every new gadget has a vocal group  concerned that it will affect peoples' ability to drive safely, whether we're talking about potentially distracting audio  equipment like TVs and music players to texting while driving. But lately I've been reading articles about how current and  future technologies *factory installed* in our cars have or will have the ability to spy on us. The current technology I'm  concerned about is OnStar-- the amazing communication device that car makers advertise as a gadget that keeps us safe and  calls help for us when we can't call for ourselves. In one case, OnStar was used by the FBI to eavesdrop on conversations. In  another case, OnStar dispatchers patched a call from a vehicle directly to the police so that all could hear the drug deal  occurring in the car. Yes, drug dealing is illegal, but so is wiretapping. Would you want someone like the FBI listening to  you?

It's pretty easy to avoid an integrated communication device such as from OnStar eavesdropping-- just make sure you don't have it installed in your car. The trick is to make sure it's not even installed because it turns out that it's really difficult to  have it disabled. Just ask the drug dealer.  But in the very near future, it won't be so easy to avoid having your car spy on  you. Currently MADD (you know who they are) is pushing for federal legislation to require ignition interlock devices to be  installed in cars whose drivers have been convicted of a single DUI. These gadgets prevent a car from being started if the  driver (or whomever) blows too high a blood alcohol content breath into the testing device. What MADD really wants is for all  cars to come already equipped with similar devices, straight from the car lots. Nissan, in fact, is testing several systems  that detect drinking in other ways including tiny cameras that observe facial expressions, shifter sensors that check blood  alcohol content, and even onboard computers that judge steering. I know this sounds paranoid, even crazy. But with MADD behind it, these devices might come standard with new cars within a  few years.

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